Odalis Flores ’23: The Effects of the Trump Administration on Immigrant Serving Organizations in the Greater Providence Area
Hi! My name is Odalis Flores and I am a rising Sophomore and a Sociology and Global Studies double major with two minors in Latin American Studies and Business and Innovation. I have always been intrigued in how things work, especially systems, as they are created to help people but yet sometimes, exclude the most vulnerable groups when they need help the most. My interest in exploring these systems and their many complexities first appeared when I did my first research project in high school in which I focused on access to higher education for undocumented students. It continued during my first year when I worked with Dr. Natoschia Scruggs of the Department of Global Studies and a couple other peers on research that was focused on the SouthEast Asian experience in Rhode Island. These two previous research projects led me to focus on The Effects of the Trump Administration on Immigrant Serving Organizations in the Greater Providence Area with Dr. Kara Cebulko of the Department of Sociology as my faculty mentor.
I decided to focus my research on this topic for a variety of reasons but mainly because I grew up in the surrounding Providence area, an area which has a dense immigrant population. Growing up, I saw how important these organizations are to these families and their journey in creating a new life in the United States. As Trump began his campaign and later his presidency, I also noticed the negative impacts and fear that his anti-immigrant agenda has caused within my community over their safety and future in this country. Unlike my other two projects where I learned from the perspectives of the migrants themselves, this project gave me a different lens. It gave me the chance to see how the lives of these migrants are affected by these systems through the eyes of the people who work to serve them.
Over the course of this 10 week project, I planned to focus on different areas such as: housing, education, domestic violence, and youth development. However, due to Covid-19, my focus areas were altered and I ended up focusing on education, youth development and legal services instead. Although Covid-19 altered my path, it gave me the opportunity to go deeper with my research and see how these communities were affected and how these organizations responded to their communities’ needs. Along with how they navigated new and unprecedented challenges in this anti-immigrant era.
As I began my research, I first did some background readings regarding the Trump-era and the immigrant experience. These readings included books such as: Children of Immigration by Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, Banned by Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, The Latino Threat by Leo R. Chavez and Immigration Nation by Tanya Maria Golash-Boza. I also had some informal informational conversations with some of the leaders in these communities.
As I carried out my research, I reached out to six organizations and five people from four different organizations in the areas mentioned above participated in the form of interviews. In these interviews, common themes such as Trump policies, fear for the health and safety of these communities, financial barriers and even social-emotional needs emerged amongst all four organizations. What was interesting was that these interviews always circled back to one thing: Covid-19. These organizations were the ones that took leadership and stepped up to help one of our nation’s most vulnerable groups during a time where they needed help from our government the most. Despite making up a majority of the essential workforce, our government chose to leave them out of certain benefits such as stimulus checks or unemployment because of their legal status. Leaving them unprotected, at risk and dependent on immigrant-serving organizations for the stability that our government failed to provide.
As I reflect on my research and create connections between the hardships and moments of success that these organizations achieved during the Trump era both pre and post pandemic, I have become more aware of the systemic injustices that are weaved into our government. A system which was built by the people and for the people, is failing to protect and aid our most vulnerable communities. It should not fall on already underfunded and under resourced communities and organizations to help each other and their people in time of need. They should not have to be the main source for aid on basic necessities such as food, financial assistance or other essentials. Rather, it should be our government, who instead is excluding these communities which have been affected the most by the current pandemic. The value of these underserved communities and their protection of human rights should not be based off of their labor or financial contribution to this nation but rather, because they are human beings and deserve what should be the basic respect of humanity.
